A twist to the Willis O’Brien tale

In visual effects history, one artist has traditionally stood out as a pioneer in stop-motion and effects photography: Willis O’Brien. The filmmaker is noted and revered for his work on The Lost World (1925), King Kong (1933) and Mighty Joe Young. Cinefex publisher Don Shay once devoted an entire issue – number #7 -to O’Brien.

But now Cinefex has uncovered a murkier side to O’Brien’s notoriety, particularly in relation to his rivalry with producer Herbert M. Dawley. This side of the story is being told in the upcoming issue #138 of Cinefex in a article by Stephen Czerkas. You can find out more on the article in this Cinefex blog post, which includes the thoughts on the revelations by such VFX heavyweights as Dennis Muren and Phil Tippett.

Issue #138 also includes coverage of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Maleficent, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and a piece on the visual effects of Godzilla, written by fxguide’s very own Mike Seymour.

You can pre-order issue #138 here.

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  1. Pingback: A twist to the Willis O’Brien tale | Occupy VFX!

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